CGAN Zodiac Challenge - Virgo - WIPs

Well, here's how far mine is so far, the maiden/virgo is supposed to be a ghostly apparition with a fiery brand on her shoulder in a burnt out derelict church, as you can see I got a shit ton of work to do, the proportions are all out of whack and I've got to make some real headway in making my ghostly apparition appear... well, ghostly - anyways, good luck on yours Valence and yours too Cherry, they're both coming along nicely, cheers.

Robin: Framing the figure within the arch of the window is a nice idea. It reminds me a bit of Anne Stokes, she often uses framing devices like that.

Here's the next stage of my nonsense.
And yes, I realise that it looks exactly like all the other female faces that I paint and yes, it is still very soft and blurry at this stage. The last time I tried a picture like this it only started to progress when I moved on to soft brushes so this time I'm trying to work softly first and then pick out the edges later, refining anatomy as I go.
The hands are very ropey too. I am using reference for them but you'd never guess to look at it!
I'm planning to put in the constellation much later and hopefully do it in a way to integrate some of the stars with the rim lighting.

Still blurry but with a bit more detail and some of that tedious hair.
I had a bit of a fight with the shoulder so I moved the hair back to expose it and that helped me understand the shape a bit better.
I'm currently trying to add a bit of freckley skin texture (without much success) and then I think it'll be time for a recrop and then I'll add the stars and some glow on a linear dodge layer to stop the backlight looking like a harsh outline.
Hopefully it'll be finished next week so that I can have a go at the Black and White challenge.

She's looking beautiful Val!

Just 6 days yet but i think I can make it.-..

Some very nice images. Look forward to seeing them finished.

Looking good Cherry, and almost done. Just a bit more shape and detail on the feet and hands and you'll be finished in time. I do like those ornate frames that you do. I don't have the patience for that.

I think mine is finished, I've had to flip it so that the stars fit in the right place. And I may have gone a bit over the top with the stars but if something's worth doing then it's worth overdoing! And with that in mind I thought I'd post the star-less version here while I ponder last minute colour correction and then dump the other in the finals thread tomorrow.



I still think there's something very wrong with the area between the eyes, where the bridge of the nose expands to the eyebrows. I've tried playing about with the shading there but with no improvement so I suspect it's a structural problem and I have no intention of fixing that. And after all my faffing about with skin texture and freckles you can't even see it at this resolution. Oh well....

Really beautiful Val.
Loving the rim lighting on the left (her right) shoulder and hair and I do see what you mean about the bridge of the nose but being less accomplished than you I can't figure out whats wrong either. Personally I dont think it distracts at all from the image though I understand that frustration of repainting and repainting without being able to resolve it.
Maybe it's something to do with being left handed but I noticed it even less in your previous (flipped) version.
Loving the way you have lengthened the image and the way she dissolves toward nothingness toward the bottom.
Lovely work.

Cherry,
That reflected light on the tree and the rear side of her face lends both areas a real ethereal quality that I really like, extremely well handled.
I'm liking that frame as well and the way the bottom left of the frame stops short to finish in the flower ties the image and border together very nicely. I would baulk at the amount of detail and work in a piece like this but once again you've pulled all these objects together in a very accomplished way. Looking forward to seeing the final.

Thank you both for the nice comments

I played with sizes and colors and some more details and I think I'm done and I can post my final today or tomorrow. ... That takes a load off my mind!

And yes Val, the frame is some work to tinker... (sounds funny. I would say "friemeln" )

I know what you mean with the work on the skin texture who anyone else can't see here - it's a mess but hey you do this also for yourself and your own level of painting. Nevertheless is it worth the work

I'm glad I didn't post my final last night (I almost did) because I think I've worked out what's wrong with the nose/brow.
The right side eye is a little too close to the nose (I got a bit confused about the centre line) and after playing about with my Mara Expressions app I think the right brow needs to extend a little more to the centre.
I think a quick fix can improve it so I will have one final tinker. (Or friemeln! I do love picking up occasional German words from Cherry and Swedish phrases from Charlotte!